Demolition work has begun on the site of the county’s first Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in Lincoln, which will help people suffering severe episodes of mental ill health.

The first walls are coming down to make way for the new bespoke 10-bedded male unit at the St George’s site near Lincoln County Hospital, with work undertaken by Lincoln-based building firm R G Carter and Focus Consultants.

The new facility will enable patients to receive treatment closer to home, with many currently travelling out of the county to seek help.

Tracy Colpitts, Ward Manager for the new Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit said: “It’s great to see work now beginning on site and we are excited to see the final ward when completed next year.

“In the meantime the project team and I are busy recruiting the 40 staff needed to deliver such a service, which includes a number of nursing and medical posts, in addition to occupational therapy, healthcare support workers, administration and housekeeping roles.”

Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust recently approved the development of the unit to enhance services in the county and provide a whole new level of specialist treatment currently not available on existing adult mental health wards at the Peter Hodgkinson Centre in Lincoln and Ward 12 at Pilgrim Hospital in Boston.

Naming the unit

As work progresses, the project team are inviting patients, carers and members of the local community to get involved and suggest suitable names for the unit.

Martin Vokes, LPFT Business Manager said: “We are looking for a name that could stand the test of time and are encouraging the public and staff to get involved and suggest suitable names.”

If people have suggestions for a name befitting of such an important project they can send these to communicationslpft@lpft.nhs.uk. The closing date for ideas is November 25 2016.

Building works will continue for the next eight months, in anticipation of an official launch in the summer of 2017.

Our Aims: About Us

To support users and ex-users of psychiatric services in the Manchester area. The organisation provides a forum for services users to have a bona fide say in planning and provision of mental health services.

Protesters in King’s Lynn fight against mental health service cuts

Protesters took to the streets of King’s Lynn to voice their anger at what they described as “continuous” cutbacks to mental health services in west Norfolk.

Mental health cuts protest

A protest march against cuts to mental health services and the Fermoy Unit at the QEH took place in King's Lynn town centre. Picture: Matthew Usher.

More than 100 campaigners marched from The Walks through the town centre before finishing outside the Majestic Cinema.

Peter Smith, former parliamentary candidate for south-west Norfolk said: “We are in the fight of our lives here.”

The protest was triggered by the Fermoy Unit, an in-patient NHS facility in Lynn for mental health, which campaigners say faces an uncertain future. The unit was briefly closed to new admissions earlier this month, but reopened last week, albeit with fewer beds.

Mr Smith said: “In my lifetime we have never had to fight like this, but what is the alternative?”

But Debbie White, director of operations for Norfolk at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said there were now no plans to axe the Fermoy Unit.

She added: “It is right that mental health services should be valued and funded on the same level as acute health services, and it is understandable people feel passionate about the Fermoy Unit remaining open.”

Labour party activist Jo Rust insisted the issue would not disappear. She said: “They have been talking about closing it for a long time. We will fight and we will not let them do that.”

Beth Anthony, 18 of Dersingham, said: “We are here to protest against the continuous cuts to the mental health service, we think it’s unacceptable. My younger brother suffers from poor mental health and has to travel to London... That is to the detriment of my family because we have to pay for him to go down by train every single month.”